Cultural richness: Wayang potehi is form of puppet theater that was introduced to Indonesia by Chinese immigrants.

Indonesia is a melting pot of many cultures and one form of puppet show, wayang potehi (Chinese glove puppetry), has shown how diversity and acculturation have continued to create new cultural treasures.

Unlike traditional leather-made wayang puppets, the cloth puppets of wayang potehi are moved by the dalang’s (puppeteer) gloved hand.

Wayang potehi is not as popular as other forms of wayang, being rarely seen outside of temples.

The Jakarta Post recently spoke with Josh Stenberg, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney’s Department of Chinese Studies who was in town to speak at a discussion on wayang potehi at Salihara.

Stenberg, who focused on wayang potehi for his PhD dissertation at Nanjing University, said that the puppets originated from the Chinese province of Hokkien (Fujian), with the earliest records of them dating back to the 18th century.

The potehi in China itself dates back to the 17th century, having been brought to Indonesia by way of trade.

During colonial times, people referred to potehi as wayang — wayang meaning shadow in Javanese, though it can also refer to the entire shadow puppet performance.

“But wayang was also something that used to mean all kinds of things. [...] Wayang in Malaysia and Singapore still usually refers Chinese opera, so wayang is a really expansive term,” he said, adding that wayang could be associated with all kinds of art, from potehi to wayang wong (human wayang).

According to Stenberg, wayang potehi was often performed alongside Javanese arts like wayang kulit and various traditional dances during colonial times as part of festivals.

However, the New Order regime brought in restrictions on Chinese culture including wayang potehi, although he noted that the art form experienced a “substantial” revival after the reform movement, especially in Jombang, Mojokerto and Surabaya in East Java as well as Semarang in Central Java.

Because of this, wayang potehi’s relative obscurity might be explained due to its origins as a performance art of an ethnic minority, so Stenberg does concede that he does not expect it to be as popular as other forms of wayang, like wayang golek for example.

“But in the areas where [wayang potehi] is performed — in East Java particularly — it’s now reasonably prominent.”

Still, remnants of uneasy race relations in Indonesia can still creep in, even with the New Order now long gone. 

Dwi Woro Retno Mastuti, puppet master and founder of Rumah Cinwa, once said in an interview that she was deemed as someone who did not support native culture because of her interest in wayang potehi.

The same sentiments led to the rejection of her dissertation about Chinese-Javanese puppets after she became a PhD student at the University of Indonesia in 2008. 

At that time, she researched Sie Jin Kwie, a hero of Imperial China whose stories were often told in potehi performances.

“I was told that I was incapable [of being] in the academic world. I was failed 10 days before my doctoral promotion exam,” she recalled. 

Stenberg said that this happened when people had a restrictive sense of identity, so they may not be particularly receptive to hybrid forms of wayang, such as wayang potehi. And this happened on both sides, he said.

“So, people who are very restrictive over Javanese culture might say that [potehi] is not Javanese but Tionghoa and does not belong,”

“But from the Chinese perspective they might say that it’s not the right way of doing this form of theater, as it’s not in Chinese anymore and tells other stories, and that the wood used for the puppets is different.”

During his studies, Stenberg found other instances where the Chinese diaspora have their own acculturation process, resulting in unique forms of art. 

For example, Thailand has its own Thai-language theater genre based on Chaozhou opera, while the Vietnamese opera genre known as hat boi draws on Chinese stories but is adapted and performed for Vietnamese audiences.

“And in Manila we also find that the dalang of wayang potehi are no longer ethnic Chinese,” Stenberg said.

“So, the place is the place of worship, like the klenteng [temple], but the actors are mostly non-Chinese Filipinos who learn the motions and the script by heart but don’t speak Hokkien and don’t have a religious affiliation, but perform at temples for mostly Chinese audiences.”

One thing that ties all the different Southeast Asian nations is that the people behind certain forms of Chinese art, like the dragon dance and Cap Go Meh processions, are often not ethnic Chinese.

Though this may veer into the age-old political correctness trope of cultural appropriation, Stenberg did not recall any Chinese person raising their objections, noting that the Chinese communities he had come across were mostly supportive, as was the Chinese government.

“If or when you have a white American or European doing a Chinese story it will be highly contentious, but I think the politics and power dynamics are so different in Southeast Asia so, for the moment, this hasn’t been anybody’s concern,” he said.

Stenberg said performances like potehi often failed to attract young Chinese performers, necessitating them to hire from outside.

There were other sensitivities, he said, but they were different from the politically correct sensitivities.

“One thing with puppetry: If you’re dealing with human theater with actors, once the people are gone you have the costumes and maybe the stage set, but you can’t really tell very much about them unless you have a recording. But with puppet forms, the object itself is very expressive, and in some cases we do have the scripts.

“So, you have the script, the object and a pretty good idea of the music that is used in performances because it draws mostly from wayang kulit, so it’s possible to revive them even 50 years after the last performance.”

— Photos by JP/Dionnasius Aditya

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